INDIA PROJECTS
Small and marginal holdings agriculture is important for raising agriculture growth, food security and to improve the economy in India. These holdings contribute to 80% of Indian agriculture. The future of sustainable agriculture growth and food security of the nation depends on the performance of these small and marginal farmers.
​
Our projects will elaborate and implement an interdisciplinary, multi-scale approach that builds on and connects relevant theoretical and analytical frameworks within a food systems approach, and that uses qualitative, consultative and quantitative methods.
​
We build resilience: promoting integrated crop-livestock farming systems through the optimization of economic, social, and environmental conditions. We optimize plant biomass for restoring soil health and livestock feed.
Our social programmes reflect a careful assessment of community needs and priorities. They aim to spur innovation, transform agricultural production, and create thriving and resilient communities.
​
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
​​
-
To provide localized support for suicide prevention, intervention and post event family support.
-
To evaluate the means by which small farms can respond to the expected increase in demand for food, feed and fibre of an increasing population, in an increasingly resource constrained country.
​
-
To effectively engage with stakeholders and decision-makers relevant to small farms and food and nutrition security, and facilitates a dialogue that cuts across classical boundaries in research, policy and practice.
​
-
To implement multi-method approach using the most recent satellite technologies,
transdisciplinary approaches, food systems mapping and participatory foresight
analysis tailored to the individual farmer.​
-
To implement a food systems perspective to look beyond production capacity and
investigate food security in terms of the availability of nutritious and safe food, food
access and control (including affordability), food utilization, and food stability.
​​
-
To conduct an assessment of governance frameworks related to small farmer
organization and food chains, which can guide policy development and is aimed at
enhancing the contribution of small farms and small food business.
​​
-
To significantly improve the current average efficiency of irrigation water use from 38% -pointing to the need for a serious improvement in use vs production performance.
​
-
To create alternative employment or supporting employment opportunities for farmers and their families.​
​
-
To increase smallholder farmers income and overall well-being.
The Yavatmal District of Maharashtra is known as the suicide capital of India.
​
India has the highest number of widows in the world, with more than 46 million widows.
​
Projects & Links​
​
Bridge of Harmony-Save the farmer, Save the Agriculture
Bridging the Divide-- I, You & We
​
Udhhar Org and their Suicide prevention of farmers
​
Smallholder innovation for resilience (SIFOR-India)
AgriTourism and the Social Farm
​
Community Based Adaption to Change
​
Water for Smallholders
​
Low-risk Farming to Increase on-Farm Profitability
​
Agri-entrepreneurship for Women and Youth
Technology to the Smallholder for Climate Resilient Agriculture
​
Space and Drone Insights for Smallholders
​
NCWL- New Crops, New Ways, New Life
​
​
Embedding Evaluation in Plans and Policies to Foster Transformative Development
​
Ecosystems, Poverty Alleviation and Conditional Transfers
​
Local Funds for Local Development
​
Overcoming Leachate Produced by Waste Disposal Sites to the Smallholder Water Supply
​
Policy, Programs and Practice- Mind the Gap
Eliminating Inequity in Programs that Categorically Classify Farmers’ Suicides as ‘Eligible’ and ‘Ineligible’ to Determine Survivor Support and Benefits
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
A Special Focus on the Crisis of Suicide
-
More than 300,000 smallholder farmers have committed suicide, falsely perceived as their only option--One every 41 minutes.
​​
-
Farmers kill themselves over failed crops and
mounting debt. The most common reason cited is their inability to repay loans for seeds and fertilizers caused by WTO imposed Trade Policy, Climate Change and the absence of water as required for their crops.
​
-
Widows of farmers who have committed suicide face abuse and threats to their children’s safety when they demand their inheritance. Farmer widows suffer the additional stigma of the suicide and the debt and they face eviction (by their in-laws) if they ask for their share in the family home or land. They face a bias where they are considered inauspicious and a burden to the husband’s family, with whom they typically live. As a result, many widows and their children are forced to resort to sex work to survive.
​
-
The silent sufferers are the Children of farmers who committed suicide- they do not receive the support or counselling they need to recover from the resulting mental trauma. The children cope with acute mental trauma, but they say very little. Even worse, no one asks in a place where ‘mental health’ is still an alien concept.
​​
-
How can these children show interest in continuing the family farm considering their present plight and the unhealthy environment of the farm sector? They need your support and actions that help.
​
​